


weather the pain (sheltered by my embrace)

by LilibethSonar



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Dreams and Nightmares, F/M, Force Bond (Star Wars), Hurt/Comfort, Psychological Torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-23
Updated: 2018-10-23
Packaged: 2019-08-06 06:54:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 591
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16383425
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LilibethSonar/pseuds/LilibethSonar
Summary: The sounds are muffled by the mental distance Ben hastily puts between the two of them, yet… those screams, they’re unlike anything he’s ever heard from Rey, nightmare or not. They are inhuman. Too much.





	weather the pain (sheltered by my embrace)

**Author's Note:**

> Rated M for torture. It's not graphic though.

In waking hours, their minds are thoroughly shielded. Their bond, they cut out before it gets the chance to come to life — such is their unspoken mutual agreement.  
Persistent as it is, the Force brings them together at night. They don’t… share dreams; those are mere glimpses, echoes of the one’s nightly visions bleeding into the other’s buzzing head. If Ben becomes aware of it, he does his best to withdraw, giving Rey her privacy. She dreams of sand and sorrow, the parts of her being he’s never had any right to. Ben’s long since stopped being mortified by the things that are likely seeping from _his_ dreams. His burning desire for her… let Rey be aware of it. What is to come, the death blow he’s going to let her make will be easier, cleaner if she’s disgusted by him.

*

One night, Ben falls asleep at his desk, an overheated datapad under his cheek. He doesn’t dream but hears Rey screaming in the dream of her own. In her nightmare.  
The sounds are muffled by the mental distance Ben hastily puts between the two of them, yet… those screams, they’re unlike anything he’s ever heard from Rey, nightmare or not. They are inhuman. Too much.  
Before Ben can stop himself, he reaches for her, disregarding time, and space, and all the doors they’ve closed.  
Rey dreams of the torture she endured at Snoke’s hands, for that’s what it was — Ben’s dead tormentor didn’t just read minds, he persuaded body that it’s being ripped apart in process. Ben remembers.  
And he remembers the way Rey screamed when it was happening to her in the waking world — that was half a battle cry, her rage overpowering the pain (it haunts him anyway). So, what’s so different about this nightmare? Why does it feels like Rey’s vocal cords are about to snap — and her very soul along with them?  
As the dreamscape comes into focus before him and the sounds reach him in their entirety, Ben understands, the realization turning his insides into ice.  
It’s… red. Not even a room, just _red_. Rey’s rigid body is suspended in the air. A hand reaches towards her, gold spilling over its crooked fingers. There’s nothing else — Rey’s alone in the red, alone with the pain, and her screams are—  
Distorted and stretched to the point of hardly resembling the word, it is… his name.

  
Ben.

  
In Rey’s dream, he is not there to stand beside her, or to protect her, or to be protected. She is alone.  
Fury rises in him like a tide, although whether he is furious with himself or the whole galaxy, Ben can't tell.  
His lightsaber materializes in his hand, already crackling and spitting plasma. In one wide swing Ben brings it down on Snoke's hand and the limb disappears like a gust of some foul smelling smoke.  
Rey falls but he catches her before her body hits the not-floor of the not-room. Ben is ready for her to recoil from the touch. Rey clutches his tumic in her trembling fingers instead. He can't bring himself to say anything as they hold each other in this strange embrace. One of his arms is around her shoulders, the other - under her knees. She's curled in on herself, seeming, _feeling_ tiny surrounded by his massive frame. Ben presses his lips to her temple and to her bared knee in turn.  
“I'm sorry I didn't come to you sooner,” he croaks out before waking up, eyes wet.  
Ben knows what he needs to do.

**Author's Note:**

> Please, let me know what you think in the comments! :D


End file.
